On January 3rd,
mission control was packed with people. Fingers
were crossed, thumbs were twiddling and no one could
could stay in their seat. One could see team was
intense, excited and nervous. The clock was ticking.
Wayne Lee, part of the Entry, Descent & Landing (EDL)
Team began to announce each entry milestone. The
routine roll calls were being performed and the mission
controllers were go for EDL. Spacecraft
heaters were turned on and the cruise stage separated.
Atmospheric entry interface passed and the descent began.
Everyone looked intently at the screen, tracking the data
coming from the spacecraft. Each little data point
told them where the spacecraft was at. When the
parachutes deployed, the first big cheer erupted from the
crowd. It made it through the extreme heat of entry.
At landing, the lone antenna was stored inside the airbag
assembly, and as it bounced to and fro along the surface
of Gusev Crater, only glimpses of the current state of
the spacecraft could be ascertained.

They
knew it was on the surface, but where was
it? How was it? The minutes ticked by
and the reports from the ground tracking stations were
gathered. The orbiter Mars Global Surveyor relayed
back possible data, but there was a long queue of other
telemetry that was in the process of being sent.
Next was word from the Stanford radio telescope, which
had picked up the rover's carrier signal. The wait
for the mission controllers was agonizing. And
then, the Goldstone Station announced they had a strong
signal from the rover. The mission control room
went into a giant uproar. Their "baby"
had made it, and had landed right-side up, to boot!

The
Spirit Rover had landed safely on Mars.

The
team was absolutely ecstatic. Wayne Lee was jumping
up and down. EDL manager Rob Manning and Flight
Systems Manager Richard Cook were absolutely beaming of
their "double-luck", as they were both on the
highly successful Mars Pathfinder rover mission in 1997.
But the Martian night was young and this was just the
beginning...

Three
hours later, the treasure trove image downlink began.
A mission controller was rocking back and forth in his
chair, anticipating the moment. The Earth had set
over the horizon of Gusev Crater, and now it was the
orbiter Mars Odyssey's turn look for Spirit. The
flood of data came, and the first black-and-white images
appeared on the screen. And more cheers echoed
throughout the room. It seemed that there were even
more people around now, staring at the various
landing site projections on the wall. First there
was a small "thumbnail" image, and then the
full-size image came in. As more pictures arrived,
they were stacked one on top of the other on the computer
screen. There was too much to see. As the
Navcams on the rover mast stretched out, they could see
the Martian horizon, piece by piece, until the grand
image was compiled: the Panorama. What a great
sight was to be seen! It was reminiscent of the
Mars Pathfinder panorama, but the landscape was new, and
there was lots for the scientists (and engineers) to be
grateful for. Steve Squyres, the Principal
Investigator for the rover, was shaking people's hands,
thanking them for the wonderful "gold mine"
that they made possible. Spirit apparently landed
in an area with a beautiful assortment of rocks and more
than enough roving-room for the rover to traverse.
It was picture-perfect. The images told so.

Now,
early Sunday morning -- or, rather, should we say Solday
morning -- the rover is done for the day (Sol 1) and is
now asleep, not that anyone else could rest. What
will they see on the next orbiter pass? What shall
they see upon Earthrise at Gusev Crater? What
secrets does Mars hold?

These
questions are thought-provoking enough to occupy the team
for months (or years). The day felt all too-much
exciting and nerve-wracking for them, with memories to
last them a lifetime. But in exactly another three
weeks, they will have to do it all over again, when the
second rover, "Opportunity", lands on the
opposite side of the planet. My, it will be nail-biting,
but they wouldn't have it any other way.